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In some respects, I do this in real life too. But that's beside the point and is best left for a different journal entry.

So anyway, I decided to take a look at my friends, fans, foes, and freaks lists and see if I could identify any of the people listed, if I could recall _anything_ about them. I think I hit around 80% on my friends and foes and freaks lists, and maybe 20% on my fans list. I'm not sure if that says something about me, or even if it says anything at all.

But every once in a while when I look at my fans list, I'm haunted by a single fan -- ^Z. There in my fans list -- the very last fan -- I see that his or her last journal was in the very early morning on Sept 11, 2001.

I worked in downtown Manhattan at the time, and lived across the river in Hoboken. I lost several acquaintances on that day, and one close friend. Was ^Z one of them*? Was ^Z some other person who lost their life that day? Or perhaps someone who gained some perspective, and realized slashdot is insignificant to them in the grand scheme of things?

Every time I look at my fans list, I'm reminded of that day and the people whose lives were lost. And I wonder how that day changed America, made us a nation of line-toers and protofascists, instead of making us celebrate and honor our freedoms even more. Was it a failure of our leadership? A failure of our modern culture?

And then, today, for the first time, I actually clicked on ^Z's profile, and I see that he or she kept on posting until sometime in 2009, and I realize I'm a sentimental, navel-gazing, analytical fool who lets himself get swept up in revery based on a false premise.

*Probably not, since he journaled in a different alphabet than the one I use.

Pudge has apparently been cured of last-post-itis, at least temporarily.

I stated that Pudge claims someone is lying because he disagrees with them on a matter of opinion. He, of course, claimed I was lying, and that he does no such thing -- multiple times. I then trapped him in his lie by providing incontrovertible evidence that he does, in fact, do what I claim he did.

I'm waiting on a response from him (of course, he claimed he wouldn't respond to any more posts of mine because I was lying -- let's see if he changes his tune because I proved that I was telling the truth).

And Pudge, if you happen to read this journal entry, please go ahead and comment freely. Feel free to crapflood it if you like, since you have no forced waiting periods on posts. Unlike those who are afraid of having their lies and inconsistencies pointed out, I let my foes and freaks post in my journal. I'm curious to see how you might try to explain the fact that you indeed falsely accused me of lying, and lied yourself in the process.

Well, it's happened again. I let myself get caught up in another "debate" with someone who has last-word-itis.

This time, it was Pudge. I've got to remember to stop reading his comments... they're infuriating, because he sometimes make good points, but tends to imply or assume invalid statements to lead to his insight. And heaven forbid that you call him out on his assumptions, or you'll spend the better part of two days' free time going back and forth while he makes sure that he can out-endure you for last post status (if you have the last post, apparently you win the discussion!).

Well, now I've finally gotten around to marking him as a foe, so I'll have a nice clear visual reminder not to get involved in a time-wasting discussion with him.

It just bothers me that, as a slashdot editor, he's got some additional weight to what he says... he gets upmodded a lot for very questionable posts. And if you disagree with him, it tends to be an automatic down-mod (not sure how that happens, I know a lot of the fundie capitalists/anarchists on slashdot have mod points, too), no matter how well-written or polite the response is.

But, no matter... maybe if I find myself in another discussion with him, I'll troll him with facts and just take satisfaction in his apoplexy.

So time is running out for me to post the third episode of Googol the Destroyer this week. I know I'd promised yesterday or today, but I did not finish the episode until last night... and today there have been no MS, Google, or Stallman articles relevant enough for me to work into the plot. Wish I had it ready to go yesterday, there were a couple.

I'll be offline tomorrow through Sunday, so it looks like Episode 3 will need to wait until next week. Sorry.

I know there's quite a bit of hubris in me making this post in my journal, but a few people did ask when it would be published:)

Just be aware that in Episode 3 we'll find out what Stallmanx has been working on in his secret laboratory, and we'll get a big clue towards what lies beneath his Beard of Druidic Prowess.

At any rate, I'm always happy to get feedback on the serial, tips, ideas, etc. It's a 12-episode arc so far, might be longer if I need to work in new plotlines based on relevant articles, or if I come up with something great.

I'll be republishing on a blog site somewhere after an extensive rewrites of each episode, probably on a six-week delay. Can anyone recommend a good blog site? (Preferably one with revenue sharing:) )?

So, due to this post, or rather the inspiration for that post, I've decided that I should resume writing regularly.

I've been pretty busy for a couple years (having a kid will do that), and I've had a dearth of ideas and inspiration, until now.

We've all seen the humorous portrayals of the cult of Jobs, but I think this is an idea that can be expanded and fleshed out into several novels based on the history of PCs in the US. The key would be in working out how computing could be transformed into some kind of karmic or religious power while maintaining the key factors that led them to develop as they did.

So now I've got to get my nose into research, and begin reading (and re-reading) everything I can about the early years of PCs... I've got a list I'll be tackling shortly, but anyone have any suggestions? I'm particularly interested in the individuals involved.

Well, another quarter has passed on by, and the world looks much the same as it did three months ago. There were some notable events that will stick with me for a while.

The Olympics in China -- awesome presentation, marred only by a few technical glitches. More confirmation of the fact that the IOC has no balls, not calling China out on the Mystery of the Underaged Gymnasts (maybe the Hardy Boys will get on the case). Michael Phelps was phenomenal, but for some reason he rubs me the wrong way... he doesn't act like a hero should act, and that bothers me subconsciously. I wish for the (imaginary, I think) halcyon days when we had heros we could worship because they had heroic values, not just because they did heroic deeds.

Banking meltdown in the US... saw this coming for the past couple years. Hopefully we'll let the market adjust so we can begin recovery, rather than postponing and exacerbating the problem. I have a great sense of unease about the next few years economically, but I'm not sure how to put myself in the best position to ride it out.

Presidential politics... same bat time, same bat channel as last election cycle, and all the ones I remember. Quick thoughts: Palin's in over her head, McCain is good at dissembling, Obama is gliding on the winds of change, Biden should've stayed in the Senate.

Rutgers football has gotten a rude awakening, Schiano better get his team to a competitive level before all his recruits de-commit.

Being a father continues to bring new joys constantly, I can't wait until my daughter can actually tell me she loves me, even though I can see it in her outstretched arms when I get home before her bedtime. On the plus side, she does signal 'touchdown' by raising her arms if I say it. Makes watching football even better:)

A good friend got married after living with his girfriend for over a decade. Congrats to them! Great people, maybe they'll be contributing more to the gene pool soon... don't know why else they would decide to get married after ten years together.

Other good friends had their first child... good luck to them, they'll need it. I thought I had a hard time adjusting to life with a baby, I think they're in for some real eye-opening.

Anyway, here's to hoping I remember to continue quarterly updates for some future retrospection.

This comes via ShadowWrought from stoolpigeon, JC, Smitty, and originally, ShadowWrought thinks, RM6f9.
Post a comment to this thread, and I will:

1. Tell you why I befriended you.
2. Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a color, a photo, etc..
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
5. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
7. In return, you must post this in your Journal/Blag/whatever.

So I happened to click on my comments tab today, and see that I have made 4095 comments. This means my next comment will be my 2^12th comment.

After a little consideration, I thought that it should be _really_ meaningful. A little more consideration, and I thought, "Wow, that's a lot of comments (nts: need to get out more) -- I wonder how my posting style has changed over the years."

Sorry for the navel-gazing (not that anyone reads my journals, anyway -- I'm averaging less than one entry every two years), but this got me thinking about personal numerical significance. Anytime I see a power of two greater than 2^10, I get a little warm fuzy feeling. I've got most of the powers of two memorized to some ungodly power, due to the influence of Telengard on the Commodore PET. I dimly remember that spell points were calculated by the formula for x = 1 to level: SP = SP + x. I remember also that exp need for the next level was 1000*2^(current level). I think the highest character I ever had was level 65, so I guess that's why I memorized 2^x all the way to the 65th power. I currently can spot powers of two to about 2^20.

I think it's interesting that this was what led me to a lifelong interest in mathematics, and in particular, formulas. Sure, maybe my affinity for math drew me to such silly pursuits while playing Telengard... but computer gaming had a big impact on my development. I still recall trying to build my own code for Telengard in Basic -- it's how I began to teach myself to code. It was the READ code that completely stumped me and taught me that sometimes you need to ask for help.

It's two and a half decades later, and I still remember my own personal summers of code. Adding functionality to Telengard, like magic weapons with 'charged' abilities and stat-gain abilities -- I think I got started just a bit early (and on the wrong machine) to have a blast tweaking Rogue. Who knows what might have come of it.

To continue the divergence from why I initially started this journal entry, I remember about 7-8 years ago my parents finally packed up and moved to their "retirement" house. I had a last look-over the items they were getting rid of, and in that pile in the basement was a box full of mildewed cassette tapes. Some were of music (the Hooters, Talking Heads, the Fixx, Dire Straights, Quiet Riot, to name a few groups) but the vast majority were of games and programs for the PET. I let them be discarded, but now I wish I could pull the data off and see what my earliest attempts at code were like -- especially the BASIC programs of over 2,000 lines before I learned about GOSUB:). I wonder if it'd be scarier than deciphering some of the perl code I've seen in recent years.

It would be a shame if anyone reading my last (and until now, only) journal entry thought it was from a few days ago, rather than 2y+. I no longer learn much new from reading slashdot, since topics are recycled so much... other than reinforcement of the fact that I know a lot less than I once thought I did. And some current events, though it seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same.